Gluten-Free Christmas Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
Made with plenty of festive sprinkles & a pretty swirl of frosting, these soft gluten-free Christmas sugar cookies are perfect for the holidays!
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Servings: 30 cookies (2 1/2 dozen)
Equipment
- Closed Star Piping Tip (like Wilton 2D or Ateco 852)
Ingredients
For The Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
- ¾ cup butter, softened (170 grams/1 1/2 sticks)
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar (300 grams)
- 2 eggs (ideally room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ½ cups gluten-free measure-for-measure flour* (300 grams)
- 1/3-1/2 cup Christmas sprinkles (use jimmies or quins!))
For The Frosting & Decorating
- 1 cup butter, softened (227 grams/2 sticks)
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar (480-600 grams)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 4-6 Tablespoons heavy cream or milk (plus more, as needed)
- gel food coloring (optional)
- sprinkles (for decorating)
Instructions
First, Bake The Cookies
- Cream Butter & Sugar. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine butter and sugar. Beat together with a paddle attachment or hand mixer 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth and cohesive.
- Mix In Wet Ingredients. Add eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate each egg before adding the next. Then, Add vanilla and almond extract and beat to blend in.
- Add Dry Ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add baking powder, salt, and flour. Mix until the flour mixture is mostly mixed in.
- Mix In Sprinkles. Add sprinkles and stir or beat on low to incorporate the sprinkles into the dough. (The dough will be thick and sticky at this point. You may prefer to finish with a spatula.)
- Chill Dough. Cover the dough and refrigerate to chill dough 30 minutes, while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat & Prep. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop & Roll Dough. When the oven is preheated, remove chilled dough from the refrigerator. Scoop or roll dough into 1.5” balls (i use a medium cookie scoop). If desired, roll the tops of the cookie dough balls in more sprinkles before placing on a baking sheet.
- Bake Cookies at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until set around the edges and just underdone in the center. Cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool completely before frosting. You can eat the cookies as-is at this point, store in an airtight container at room temperature 2-3 days or freeze up to 2 months. OR, you can decorate them!
Make Frosting & Decorate Cookies
- Beat The Butter. Add softened butter to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and beat for 1-2 minutes with a hand mixer or paddle attachment until smooth and fluffy.
- Gradually Add Powdered Sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer running, gradually add powdered sugar.
- Combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again, and add vanilla, almond extract and 2 Tablespoons of cream. Mix on medium speed, and add additional cream 1 Tablespoon at a time until you reach a smooth and spreadable consistency. If you want to pipe the frosting, the frosting should hold its shape on a spatula or your finger, but not be too stiff to easily stir with a spatula. To make frosting softer, add more cream 1 Tablespoon at a time. To make frosting more stiff, add powdered sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time, until you reach your desired texture.
- Add Color, If Using. If using gel food coloring, add 1-2 drops at a time at this point until your desired color is reached. (You can also divide the frosting so you can dye some of it and keep some white--just use remove the white frosting from the bowl before adding food coloring to the rest.)
- Pipe or Spread. Transfer frosting to a piping bag fitted with a piping tip. I recommend a large closed star tip, (like a Wilton #2D or Ateco #852). Starting at the center of each cookie, pipe frosting into a rosette on top of each cookie. (Start in the center of the cookie and continue to move around the circle of the cookie until you get close to the edges.) If you don't have a piping tip, you can use an offset spatula to frost the cookies.
- Add Sprinkles, if desired. (I recommend only frosting 2-3 cookies at a time if you plan to add sprinkles on top of each cookie, so you can add them before the frosting sets!)
- Serve & Store. Decorated sugar cookies will keep in an airtight container in the fridge 2-3 days, or can be frozen in a single layer up to 2 months. (Don't stack them, or you're mess up the frosting!)
Notes
- Use The Right Sprinkles! This recipe works best with jimmies or quins sprinkles If you use nonpareils (the tiny ball-shaped sprinkles), they'll just melt & bleed their color. Jimmies and Quins will hold their shape & color!
- Gluten-Free Flour. We highly recommend King Arthur Measure-For-Measure Gluten-Free Flour. If you use another brand, be sure it contains xanthan gum or your cookies will not turn out properly. Oat flour, coconut flour, almond flour, etc. will not work in this recipe.
- Measure Carefully! For the best texture & flavor, make sure to weight the flour or use the scoop and level method to spoon the flour into the measuring cup (rather than using your measuring cup to scoop flour, which packs extra flour into the recipe)
- Coloring. If you plan to dye the frosting, I recommend gel food coloring. It has more vibrant color and won't throw off the texture of your frosting.
Video
Find the recipe:
sweetsandthankyou.com/christmas-sprinkle-sugar-cookies/